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EUNEC seminar on 'Governance in education'

May 30, 2016 to May 31, 2016

On 30-31 May, EUNEC representatives from 11 countries gathered in Amsterdam to reflect on 'Governance in Education'. There is an evolution going on from a government model towards a governance model. This is a fundamental change in the way of thinking about shaping political and decision-making processes in society. The role of the governement is no longer to steer directly policy processes, but rather to coordinate and facilitate policy processes. The govenance model refers to the growing mixing and interdependance of public and private actors, to decentralized and horizontal relationships between actors at different administrative levels, depending on each other for the making and implementation of policy.

The first day of the seminar, Tracey Burns, leader of the OECD project ‘Governing Complex Education Systems’ ,explained about the paradigm shift from government to governance in education. Participants visited the Hyperion Lyceum, and had the opportunity to discuss, in small groups, governance issues with different stakeholders: pupils, staff, school board, municipality, parents, ...
The second day of the seminar, participants discussed based on the input of an expert panel: Alvaro Almeida dos Santos (President of the General Assembly of the National Public Headmaster Association and member of the Portuguese Education Council) talked about‘School autonomy in Portugal and the pressure for compliance with centralised decisions'; Serban Iosifescu (President of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education) reflected on‘School governance: fine tuning improvement and accountability by using data and indicators'; Edith Hooge (Professor Boards and Governance in Education and Vice Dean at TIAS School for Business and Society, Tilburg University) explained about‘Trends in accountability processes and mechanisms and the role of the government in a multilevel governance system in Education.
EUNEC members adopted final statements , and a full report of the event was published.